Research Educational Training

All students, faculty, and staff who plan to seek IRB approval for research projects that involve human subjects are required to complete human subjects research training. All faculty who advise students who plan to conduct human subjects research are also required to complete human subjects research training.

Effective December 31, 2014, Union Institute & University’s Institutional Review Board (IRB) is changing the required human subjects research educational course that all researchers planning to conduct human subjects research projects are required to complete. After December 31, 2014, researchers—students, faculty, and staff—will no longer have access to the Collaborative Institutional Training Initiative (CITI Course).

The IRB is developing a human subjects research training course that will be available through CampusWeb in early 2015. In the interim, students and faculty, who have not previously completed the CITI course, will need to complete the National Institutes of Health (NIH) online Protecting Human Subject Research Participants course as a prerequisite to submitting an IRB application and research proposal for human subjects research projects. The NIH course is available online and free. New users need to register for the NIH course and MUST PRINT their completion reports. The NIH will NOT send completion reports to researchers or to the Union’s IRB.

Researchers who have successfully completed the CITI course are not required to also complete the NIH course or Union’s IRB human subjects training course. Successful completion of one human subjects research training course within the last three years is sufficient.

Links of Interest

Research Studies Conducted Online

Researchers whose studies will include an Internet component, such as an online survey, questionnaire, focus group, or interview, are required to include informed consent forms and to keep their Internet study results confidential. (See Links to Additional Resources.)

Research Studies Conducted in Other Countries

Researchers whose studies will be conducted in a location other than the United States are required to verify whether privacy, confidentiality, or human subjects research laws exist in countries where they will conduct research and whether these laws will impact their research projects. (See Links to Additional Resources.)

Research Studies Involving HIPAA

Researchers must follow privacy and confidentiality rules associated with the use of participants’ private health information. See Links to Additional Resources.